Do you prioritise bigger house or more disposable income?

[Pepperwand]

Firstly, I know we're very lucky to be in a position where this is even a choice but I seem to change my mind on this matter weekly so would appreciate other thoughts and perspectives.

Live with DH and two young DC (preschooler and baby) in a small 3 bed. Love the area and house in general but have niggles which are mainly no hallway....front door opens into living room, no downstairs loo and no option to put one in and small children's bedrooms....one is a very small box room. No easy way to extend either because of the plot we're on.

We could afford a bigger mortgage as manage to save a few hundred a month and won't have nursery fees in a few years so part of me feels that it's a no brainer and we should just move somewhere bigger and accept bigger debt. Other half of me thinks that if we like the area and have a house we can easily afford then we should just Marie Kondo the heck out of it and enjoy less "stuff" and more flexibility in terms of disposable income, options to pay off the mortgage early/save for children's future etc.

Did anyone have similar circumstances? What did you do?

Also I'm a single parent so that is a factor. If I ever lost my job then there is no one else to help pay the mortgage, so I don't want to over stretch myself.

Interesting about introverts vs extroverts, I'm an extrovert and my house is just somewhere I come to sleep!

Prepare a floor plan of your downstairs and post it on here and on Houzz for people to see if you can adjust your layout slightly to provide for a hall/entry landing pad.

I was going to say disposable income but your house really does sound quite small. There’s probably a halfway option which is a bit more space without it using up all your disposable income. We’re in a small 3 bed with a 4th garage conversion bedroom but we do have a hall and downstairs loo too.

I would say extra space as long as you will still be able to live comfortably albeit without luxuries for a few years. As the children get older and want friends round / to stay having the extra space will be a huge plus. We didn't move when we could have and did regret it.

For me I could easily afford a 2 bed bungalow (I need this, no flats in the area either) but a 3/4 would be a stretch as there's so few they're way dearer or have stairs which make it pointless for me. So in my circumstances I went cheapest total doer upper 2 bed bungalow and don't regret it. Though lockdown WFH has been space challenging.

We prioritised more disposable income. Our house is not tiny but we could have gone much bigger. However now in our fifties and having paid our mortgage off twenty years ago we have had a life of never worrying about money and lots of great holidays. Our friends did go for the very big house, I remember she didn’t get a holiday for six years at one point and still has her mortgage and her DH is almost 60. We bought around the same time.

Smaller house, retire earlier. Bigger house just means more space to fill with crap you don't need. If you have a 3 bed and 2 DC I'm assuming they have their own rooms which seems plenty of room to me (grew up in same myself). I'd recommend decluttering, you'll be surprised how much more spacious it feels. Disclaimer: obv this is just my personal opinion and this question really depends on your own priorities.

Bigger house but then 3 out 4 of us are introverts and like being at home but not on top of each other. Also we moved to a nicer more rural area for being able to go out into the countryside for walks and bike rides

Bigger house. Makes more sense in the long run.

Small house. BIL has an enormous house with enormous mortgage, cant afford to heat it, can’t afford holidays. Screwed financially with the lockdown. He’s desperate to retire. He thinks the house is an investment for his retirement.However it still needs lots of work doing to it, probably hasn’t made that much on it. He still needs to live somewhere and pay off the mortgage first as well. It’s a chain around his neck.

We paid our mortgage off over 10 years ago and we save the money instead. Out house is far from perfect however we have lots of financial security instead.

We're committing a mumsnet Cardinal sin and compromising on location, gasp. I want a bigger house but not willing to give up holidays. So we are moving to a cheaper area (which has excellent schools and good amenities but is on the mumsnet hit list of "not naice places"). Something had to give and house size and disposable income just couldn't be either one of those things for me.

Went for a bigger house, increasing our mortgage by £400 a month (increase of 50%).

The lack of downstairs space in the living room killed me as I just couldn't see us raising a family there despite it being a 3 bed house. It was just cramped.

Ended up moving less than half a mile away, still in a 3 bed, but we have an extra room downstairs along with a larger living/dining room and a gorgeous South facing garden.

Best decision we ever made as we are not ones to spend money on going out.

I'd say location location location. If you're in a catchment for good schools then stay where you are, get the older one in at least (look at the sibling policy) and move later.

Or look at extending if possible.

In ordinary circumstances I say move house but unless schools are an issue then defer the decision to when jobs, house prices etc are more certain. And use the opportunity to save.

We went for the smaller house, and thank god we did as lost half an income this year. There are times when we would like more space but the financial security is worth so much more for us. The house is so easy to tidy at the end of the day. We overpay when we can though so hopefully will be mortgage free much sooner. We love the location though and have a downstairs loo, might be a different story if we didn’t!
Why don’t you overpay your mortgage every month by the amount you would spend on a bigger house. See how this goes for a year and if you don’t find it too much of a squeeze then move...added bonus being you will have paid down your mortgage even more!

I would go for a bigger house. At this stage of your kids lives the space is more important and it may be that you have more disposable income in future if you change jobs, get promoted, remortgage etc.

We were in a similar position and were able to extend. It is SO much better with more living space even though the bedrooms are still on the small side.

Such an interesting thread and I think it totally depends on the family.

We are very much a family who enjoy being at home. We’re currently preparing to sell and will be increasing our monthly mortgage payment by over 50% to get lots more space. The house we live in now makes me unhappy because it’s not even big enough to invite any of our parents over for a takeaway never mind entertain the whole family at Christmas.

We could stay here, declutter and enjoy a tiny mortgage therefore have new cars lots and go more holidays that we’d be able to afford to if we move but for me the house is just so important. I want my kids to be able to invite their friends over etc and for me not to wish they weren’t there because they’re taking up all the space.

Arghhhh see now I’ve read through the thread I think are we making the right decision?!

But my kids are primary aged so I’m unlikely to give up work any time soon anyway, would rather have the space than an extra two weeks in the sun etc. I could talk myself into it or out of it so easily.

We can't throw large parties or have big groups over for a meal, but to be honest, Christmas is the only time I'd want to host more than a small group and it isn't worth getting a bigger house for just Christmases. My DCs don't have big groups of friends over just one or two at a time and there is space for that. If you were party people or liked hosting big family Sunday meals the space would be more important but that just isn't us.

Bigger house. It's an investment anyway as when children are older you can downsize again. Best thing we did esp in this current time in lockdown and as someone mentioned earlier we are a family of introverts so need our own space to hideaway and read a book or er check our phones!

Bigger house, then you never need to go out

I feel much more relaxed now we have more space. We are not super stretched though, the mortgage is only £150 more than our previous house due to equity making a bigger deposit %. So that felt like a good compromise.

1. Location for schools
2. Biggest house you can afford (within catchment for schools you'd want your dc to go for)

Once your dc start growing, you'll appreciate a more roomy house.
However, the decision was easier for us in that neither of us are attracted to 'consumables' or 'fashions' - be they gadgets or clothes or make up / nails / expensive hair dos- or fancy cars or whatever, so it never felt that we were 'sacrificing', just making a really sound financial decision and great decision for our family.

In your position it would really depend on how small is small - will your kids have enough space as they grow for example? Eg room for a desk and decent bed / storage

We decided not to go for the bigger house - we have a 4 bed but it's a new build so hardly palatial! We have kids who are now 9 &13 and have lots of friends nearby etc, our mortgage is tiny and so we could afford somewhere bigger but we just want more of a safety buffer tbh. We aren't enormous risk takers!! Plus I feel like however big the house was wed just fill that space so I prefer to declutter.

That said, we do have the luxury of having room to extend if needed.

I've probably been no help at all!!!

I am in exactly the same situation as you, kids are 5 and 6. We have recently extended the back so we have an extra living room but 5 year olds bedroom is tiny.
at the moment I think the plan is to stay for at least 3-5 years. kids don't need more bedroom space until there older imo. ( mine are happy how they are anyway)
Saying this disposable income is important to me, I'd much rather be able to make memories with the kids doing days out, camping, holidays abroad over a bigger house.
if we are earning more in the next 3-5 years then we will definitely do it, but if we're not for any reason then we will stay put as I don't see the point of a bigger house if we can't do enjoyable things on a weekend and go on holiday ect.

We chose the bigger house. We're not big spenders on clothes or gadgets. Happy to holiday in the UK. Ran my last car for a decade. But we love the extra space and the larger garden. I work from home so it's great to have room for an office. And the extra bedroom means we've been able to take in an extra during lockdown when they had nowhere else to go

Bigger houses are great. Just more cleaning to do 😬